Three of the five WRs currently listed on our roster are 30+ years of age and Slater is closer to 30 than he is to 25. All of our receivers are smallish and not particularly fast, though quickness and knowlege of the playbook can make up for the lack of speed sometimes. No receiver on this roster poses a legitimate downfield threat to a defense. Most would probably agree that we need someone who can stretch the field, though Brady won 3 superbowls without a real deep threat (Branch, Patten and Givens were quick, bordering on fast, but none would be considered a deep threat, then or now).

But here's the problem: We've been down this road before with both drafted and free agent WR acquisitions, and aside from Moss, none have panned out. Moss was just one of those freaks of the game that still had a little left in the tank when he came in. Now, all we ever hear is how complicated the offense is and how difficult it is for receivers to fully grasp it.

Which brings me to my point: If the offense is so complicated that young or free agent WRs can't grasp it, then MAYBE IT'S TIME TO SIMPLIFY IT... With an aging and non-threatening receiving corps that's getting older and slower by the season and no talent pool that has experience in "our complicated system" and with Brady at a point in his life where he's no longer going to stay late after practice to work with young receivers like he did early in his career with Branch, Patten and Givens, something needs to change. It's great to have dominating TEs, but the better d's understand we pose no threat to them deep and bring their safeties up into the box and have the db's jam our undersized WRs, disrupting the overall timing of the entire offense.

I'm seeing more and more coverage sacks, where Brady is just standing there then sliding around in the pocket looking for an open receier and no one can get open and he has to eat it because he's too slow to make it happen with his running. This is a young mans game and it seems to me that the team is really wasting the last couple years of #12's career by continuing to run an offense that doesn't allow young receivers to develop.

Many (myself included) fault BB for being poor at drafting WR's. I'm starting to believe that it's more a fault of the system than the talent evaluation, but regardless, something needs to change pretty soon, especially if Brady is planning on playing into his 40's as he's mentioned... Nothing would be more embarassing than seeing 40+ year old Brady with his 9.6 forty time looking for Branch to jump out of his walker to make a 4 yard reception, since Lloyd somehow tripped over the imaginary line of scrimmage that the network puts on the tv screen and was still getting up off the ground and Welker was standing on the sideline taking a concussion test after Brady led him too much 3 plays before and a safety lit him up.

If it's THAT complicated, how about simplifying it a bit so we can get some younger talent at the skill positions?

Three of the five WRs currently listed on our roster are 30+ years of age and Slater is closer to 30 than he is to 25. All of our receivers are smallish and not particularly fast, though quickness and knowlege of the playbook can make up for the lack of speed sometimes. No receiver on this roster poses a legitimate downfield threat to a defense. Most would probably agree that we need someone who can stretch the field, though Brady won 3 superbowls without a real deep threat (Branch, Patten and Givens were quick, bordering on fast, but none would be considered a deep threat, then or now).

But here's the problem: We've been down this road before with both drafted and free agent WR acquisitions, and aside from Moss, none have panned out. Moss was just one of those freaks of the game that still had a little left in the tank when he came in. Now, all we ever hear is how complicated the offense is and how difficult it is for receivers to fully grasp it.

Which brings me to my point: If the offense is so complicated that young or free agent WRs can't grasp it, then MAYBE IT'S TIME TO SIMPLIFY IT... With an aging and non-threatening receiving corps that's getting older and slower by the season and no talent pool that has experience in "our complicated system" and with Brady at a point in his life where he's no longer going to stay late after practice to work with young receivers like he did early in his career with Branch, Patten and Givens, something needs to change. It's great to have dominating TEs, but the better d's understand we pose no threat to them deep and bring their safeties up into the box and have the db's jam our undersized WRs, disrupting the overall timing of the entire offense.

I'm seeing more and more coverage sacks, where Brady is just standing there then sliding around in the pocket looking for an open receier and no one can get open and he has to eat it because he's too slow to make it happen with his running. This is a young mans game and it seems to me that the team is really wasting the last couple years of #12's career by continuing to run an offense that doesn't allow young receivers to develop.

Many (myself included) fault BB for being poor at drafting WR's. I'm starting to believe that it's more a fault of the system than the talent evaluation, but regardless, something needs to change pretty soon, especially if Brady is planning on playing into his 40's as he's mentioned... Nothing would be more embarassing than seeing 40+ year old Brady with his 9.6 forty time looking for Branch to jump out of his walker to make a 4 yard reception, since Lloyd somehow tripped over the imaginary line of scrimmage that the network puts on the tv screen and was still getting up off the ground and Welker was standing on the sideline taking a concussion test after Brady led him too much 3 plays before and a safety lit him up.

If it's THAT complicated, how about simplifying it a bit so we can get some younger talent at the skill positions?

I was thinking this same thing last year after the OchoCinco experiment & all the failures we have had drafting WR to fit TB's system.

I think there is no doubt we need a young reciever that can get open, because we don't have anyone like that on the roster. I love Welker, but man does he look slow. He gets little seperation against a good corner and he is only a short yardage type. If it were a case of paying him around five million to keep him, I'd say let's do it, but at the price he wants I think we should head in another direction.

We have 90 million tied into two tight ends that play in the middle of the field...time to put some resources on finding outside guys.

Saw some more highlights this morning on ESPN and there is a glaring difference between the way the Pats WRs play versus the other three teams in the playoffs. In the other game and seen from the Ravens, I saw WRs get OPEN, get SEPARATION and get to the Ball. Did anyone notice how many pass plays occurred when a Pats WR was wide open 15 - 20 yards down he field? I can't recall any. Until the Pats put the fear in an opponents D they will stretch the field, they will always stay in the box and cover over the top. There better be a real nice WR signing in the off season!

WRs in the NFL are like starting pitchers in baseball, if you have an ace the other guys in the rotation look better. The Pats don't have an ace, they have a couple of twos or threes.

The Patriot SB winning teams really didn't have an ace either, but they had a much stronger defensive unit than this team. Without that shutdown D you need an ace receiver. If you have both - look out.

What I saw last night a in about half this seasons games was an inability to stretch the field. We need a big fast receiver. And cornerbacks. Dennard looks solid, Talib seems a bit injury prone, and the rest are iffy. Let's get Mallet some serious playing time and figure out who he is and either keep him or dump him.

The main problem with the Pats is in the secondary. It's been their biggest issue for years.

While I have serious issues with the defense as well, as someone else mentioned, it's not the D's fault that we scored 3 points in 2.5 quarters. We squandered WAY too many opportunities throughout the entire game and most of it comes down to slow wide receivers, or in the case of Lloyd, can't catch a ball without falling to the ground. I'm pretty sure he tripped over the left hash mark at least twice in the game.

It's easy to say "let's go get a big WR who can stretch the field," but we've had a couple of those in the past and apparently they can't grasp the complicated offense and end up labeled as busts, ergo, the need to simplify it (the offense). How many times throughout the season do you see guys like Arian Foster and Ray Rice take a simple dump off pass out in the flats for a 15 yard gain. I can't remember the last time I've seen Brady dump off to a back releasing into the flat. Ok, one time he tried that to Vereen last night and he heard footsteps and dropped it... Everything seemingly has to be forced over the middle to Welker or the TE's with Brady.

The other difference I see between this offense and the offense that was winning superbowls several years ago, is the lack of adjustments. You could always count on Weiss (or Crennel with the D) to make necessary adjustments, but McDaniels never seems to, or if so, never seems to make the right ones. Ten years ago, if the Pats got down by 8, or even 15 like last night, I had full confidence that Charlie would make enough adjustments and be creative enough to get us back in it. I no longer have that faith and it's a shame to see other qb's that are no where near Brady's calibur having great success because they have one stud receiver to work with. Brady has never really had the FULL package. In '07 he had Moss and Welker but not running game and a questionable OC in Mc D. Then came Bill O'Blivious and now back to Mc. D

As much as I'd like to blame the D, this one was all on the aging offense. Do we just keep franchising Welker and brining back Branch until Brady retires because he no longer wants to put in the time to develop a young buck? Heck, might as well bring Troy Brown back if that's the case. He could at least bolster the defensive backfield.